Identity in CyberSpace - first change in identity

[himoacs]

I wrote an essay about change in identity in cyberspace. Since we all participate in Cyberspace I think that all of us will find it useful to some extent or another. The essay is based on William Gibson's idea of Cyberspace. For those who do not know, he is the person who coined the term cyberspace. The essay is written completely by me and I do not want anyone to be copying it and distributing it anywhere for any reason whatsoever. I hope you find it helpful.

According to William Gibson, cyberspace is the world where presently a majority of us spent most of our lives. It is an imaginary place where the stock market operates, where our banks store our money, and where our telephone calls occur when we talk to our friends. We enter this intangible world anytime we interact with digital technologies such as cell phones, computers etc. We commonly find ourselves navigating through cyberspace whenever we surf the World Wide Web without realizing. In the 21st century, most of us exist just as much as in cyberspace as we do in the real space or ?meatspace,? as Gibson called it. Cyberspace, ever since its creation, has continued to influence our lives and holds a significant value in all of our lives. (Gibson)
Cyberspace influences us in distinct ways depending on several factors such as the activities that we engage in and the amount of time we spend online. One of the most important impacts of cyberspace on our lives is its major influence on our identities. Our identity can undergo three levels of change that can have both positive and negative outcomes.

The first level includes almost or absolutely no modification in an individual?s identity. The person acts in cyberspace similar to how he/she acts in their real life. This is clearly evident in the use of applications such as MSN Messenger, Skype and to some extent in social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Individuals usually use these VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) clients to communicate with people in their close circles such as friends and families. During the communication, occurring online or on telephones, both individuals on each end do not experience any change in their identity. They behave or talk as they really are or as the person on the other end already knows them to be in real life. Deviance of any sort during these cyberspace activities might lead the other person to doubt who they are talking to since they cannot really confirm it themselves. For example, it is really intricate to completely know who you are chatting with online. It might not be your friend but their little brother who is probably enjoying deceiving you or maybe a hacker who has hacked into your friends MSN account. Thus maintaining real identity with close people is vital to preventing any doubts and confusions.
Similarly, most of the times common individuals experience almost no change in their identity when they use social networking sites such as Facebook. The main purpose of Facebook is to get connected with your friends and even relatives from around the world and interact in several different ways such as by sharing pictures and videos, sending messages and playing games. Numerous people join Facebook hoping to find their old classmates or friends from different countries. It would not be possible to find people and get them to accept you as their friend if you have a fake profile picture, different interests and unreal name on your profile. Therefore it is essential to sustain your real identity in cyberspace when you are on social networking sites where your main purpose is to connect with your friends.

[bwfield]

very good article! i think i am happy with my "cyber identity"

[Super M]

nice article dude..